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May 2024
Compiled by Michael Popke
IntegriCo Composites manufactures durable composite materials produced entirely from landfill-bound plastic. A key component of the manufacturing process is the company's proprietary low-heat method, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity of hard plastics, IntegriCo officials said in an email.
The method is designed to ensure durability and reliability throughout the products' lifecycle and enable the products to be recycled at the end of their service lives.
The company's composite ties — which are used in various rail networks in the United States and internationally — offer spike retention and compressive strength, exceeding industry benchmarks, company officials said.
To ensure product quality and provide solutions that meet or exceed industry requirements set by organizations such as the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association, IntegriCo conducts rigorous independent testing across its entire product line, they said.
From industrial rail yards to Class Is, the railroad industry continues to adopt and find more areas of use for NARSTCO's sustainable steel ties, turnouts and recently released "e" clip fasteners, company officials said.
Produced entirely from high-quality recycled U.S. steel, NARSTCO steel ties can support carbon footprint reduction initiatives. They use less ballast and contain no toxic creosote or other preservatives harmful to installation crews and the environment, company officials said.
When installing NARSTCO steel ties instead of alternative ties, customers can reduce their overall maintenance cost because "steel has a proven extended service life compared to alternative tie materials," they said. Steel ties also can eliminate downtime due to reduced track maintenance and hold track gauge.
NARSTCO currently is involved with several U.S. port projects, including the Navy Base Intermodal Facility, which is being constructed by the South Carolina Ports Authority in Charleston and is slated to open in 2025. NARSTCO is supplying "a large quantity" of steel ties and turnouts for the facility, company officials said.
Sicut North America Inc. offers composite crossties produced from reinforced recycled plastics. Sicut ties have been installed in U.S. Class I heavy-haul infrastructure, as well as in mass transit and urban metro applications, company officials said.
Sicut is working in partnership with Pandrol in North America to develop new solutions to a range of track infrastructure challenges railroads face.Sicut ties also are manufactured in Europe, where Sicut's parent company is the sole supplier to national railroads such as Germany's Deutsche Bahn in Germany and the U.K.'s Network Rail. Sicut ties are installed in more than 20 countries across six continents and in all track categories, company officials said.
Prior to being approved and installed in both new track and maintenance projects, Sicut's technology is subjected to rigorous and extensive testing, both in the laboratory and in track. That includes arduous testing undertaken by Union Pacific Railroad in its Omaha, Nebraska, laboratory, followed by extensive monitoring in track over several years at about 100 million gross tons per year, Sicut officials said.
In addition to 8.5- and 9-foot mainline ties, Sicut offers longer switch ties for switches, grade crossings and other special trackwork applications. The company also provides ties in a range of widths and depths for use in challenging applications such as curves, tunnels and bridges.
To support environmental and sustainability targets, Sicut ties are independently evaluated for embodied carbon, company officials said.
Last year, voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak acquired the concrete-tie assets of CXT Inc., including CXT's facility in Spokane, Washington.
Integrating CXT into the voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak portfolio enables the company to produce more than 50 concrete tie designs coupled with essential fastening components — such as Safelok I clips, ductile shoulders, rail pads and insulators — all manufactured in-house, Nortrak officials said.
Meanwhile, Nortrak's Keyway Tie System is a concrete tie designed to intermix seamlessly with wood ties. The innovation has "gained traction" across North America in both freight and passenger applications, company officials said.
Nortrak has expanded the Keyway Tie range to accommodate various rail base sizes to include Keyway Transition Ties, which are designed to smooth transitions from fixed structures to open tracks. By minimizing ballast breakdown at turnouts and grade crossings, the transition ties mitigate track surface dips, reducing structural impacts and prolonging the lifespan of high-cost assets, Nortrak officials said.
For Vossloh Tie Technologies/Rocla Concrete Tie Inc., which has been supplying ties across North America for more than 35 years, this year started off with consistent demand compared with previous years.
There was a slight uptick in orders from Class I customers and major commuter lines, company officials said. The increase in demand is coming from mainline ties as well as yard applications.
For yards, the company's new 102 Yard tie is an economically optimized tie-and-fastener combination designed with less reinforcement and material for yards and a variety of transit applications. The cost efficiencies driven into the new tie-and-fastener design make it "extremely competitive" with plated wood ties, company officials said.
The design also offers a much longer lifespan compared to traditional ties, providing a "compelling" return on investment for both new yard construction and total yard rehabs, they said.
Willamette Valley Company (WVCO) Railroad Solutions offers several products for wood, composite and concrete tie repairs.
SpikeFast® ES-50 is designed to remediate wood and composite railroad ties, anchoring spikes with comparable strength to unspiked hardwood ties. It is a patented dual-component, non-foam 100% solid polyurethane product engineered to anchor cut-spikes or screw-spikes.
ES-50 is dispensed from handheld canisters or 200-gallon returnable steel totes through a pressure/temperature-controlled meter and can be applied in a wide range of outdoor conditions. It is easy to apply with minimal equipment maintenance and clean up, and its quick cure time allows for a high production rate, company officials said.
Developed to meet the railroad industry's need for a concrete tie repair product. SpikeFast® CTR-100 is a time-tested product that meets railroad specifications and allows quick repair of damaged ties, and seals and protects concrete from abrasion, company officials said. CTR-100 is designed to restore original geometry for proper cant and gauge while also reducing head deflection.
With a quick cure time, CTR-100 enables trains to get back on track with as little downtime as possible. WVCO also offers easy-to-use quick-curing products for concrete tie insert and shoulder repairs.
WVCO also employs a service technician team that works with customers to ensure equipment and materials are performing at optimal efficiency.
Michael Popke is a Madison, Wisconsin-based freelance writer. Email comments or questions to prograil@tradepress.com..
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